NJ Military and Veterans Affairs official pleads guilty to fraud, falsifying veteran records

CAMDEN — A state Military and Veterans Affairs official will forfeit his job after pleading guilty Monday to falsifying his veteran and government records in order to receive a tax exemption and benefits, Camden County Prosecutor Warren W. Faulk said.

William Devereaux, 64, of Sycamore Court, Laurel Springs, pleaded guilty to theft by failure to make the required disposition before Superior Court Judge Irvin Snyder.

The terms of his plea require Devereaux to forfeit his position with the state’s Division of Veterans’ Services and prohibit him from holding any job with the state of New Jersey.

He also agreed to reimburse Laurel Springs $54,142.25 in unpaid taxes. He is expected to serve 30 days of house arrest as part of his sentence followed by five years of probation, the duration of which he will be banned from working with veterans in any capacity.

Devereaux, appointed director of veterans programs for the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs by former Gov. James McGreevey, admitted to using falsified veterans’ records and other falsified state documents to wrongly claim exemption from property taxes in Laurel Springs from April 2002 to his arrest in November 2008.

He falsely stated he was 100 percent permanently and totally disabled due to military service, qualifying him for a property tax exemption. In fact Veterans Affairs had stated Devereaux was only temporarily disabled and was eligible to pay property taxes.

Devereaux’s tax evasion was only one aspect of an ongoing scheme to create for himself a false history of combat and heroism in the Vietnam War, according to Faulk.

The U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs Office of Inspector General Criminal Investigation Division is continuing an investigation into other records Devereaux is accused of falsifying. Among them, military benefits forms for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that claim Devereaux, as a paratrooper and artilleryman, exchanged fire with enemy combatants and was involved in an incident of friendly fire. He also claimed to have been injured multiple times in Vietnam and asserted he received medals like the Purple Heart, the Soldiers Medal and the Bronze Star with “V” device.

Devereaux, according to the prosecutor, served as a payroll distribution specialist in Vietnam for 4 months, 11 days in 1968. He received none of the heroic medals he claimed to have and there is no record of his being injured in combat.

“The defendant’s fraudulent activities dishonor the valor and sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who served in Vietnam, including the 57,000 who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Faulk said. “It is therefore particularly appropriate that his plea prohibits him from counseling veterans on their benefits. I’m pleased he remains under investigation by federal authorities for violations of the Stolen Valor Act.”